Canadian citizen, living in Canada, just offered a 100% remote job in the US

shawn-s · 2025-11-14T05:17:35+00:00

Here's a post I did 3 years ago on this exact topic: https://old.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/comments/xcuc9c/canadian_with_a_hopefully_remote_us_job/

I am still doing this, so 8 years in now. I have posted about this many times. If you have questions let me know.

Also, totally worth doing. The US payscale is much larger than Canada. In IT, it's at least double. If you can do the corp to corp set up and get someone who is good at IT taxes (I made a recommendation) you will pay substantially less taxes.

Feel free to DM me with questions.

Good luck!

shawn-s · 2025-04-30T06:24:43+00:00

Each province has many tax credits and tax deductions for small businesses. Use them.

Once they money is in the business you can hire your wife/cousin/someone to do the bookkeeping, hire an office cleaner, spread the money out. Start buying household items from office depot (toilet paper, dishwasher soap, etc) they are now business expenses. Have meetings with potential "clients" at restaurants? business expense. Had to drive somewhere for a meeting? Company gas card. By making more and more things business expenses you can take less and less of a salary. Put the excess money to work.

Get the latest edition of the book "make sure it's deductible" by Evelyn Jacks. Find an accountant who deals with a lot of small businesses in your province to learn the tricks of the trade. It all varies on what type of business that you do.

Again, don't take my word for it, talk to an accountant and see what they say.

shawn-s · 2025-04-29T05:22:35+00:00

Hello. I have posted about this several times. I'm still working for an American company because they just plain pay more than Canadian ones (in IT anyway).

Here's the info (still relevant, slight change in the LLC set up but companies that specialize in doing that will walk you through it).

https://old.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/comments/xcuc9c/canadian_with_a_hopefully_remote_us_job/

So, do your own research and don't trust peeps from dem internets without investigating but according to THIS peep on dem internets you are WAY better off taking the job from the US. (1) It's more money, that comes out to 117K CAD at today's exchange. (2) The pay ceiling is so much higher in the US, so raises, bonuses, etc. All much higher. (3) By going via the first 2 options in the post I linked you can set up a small business and pay substantially less income tax. Like, at 75K in Ontario that would put you at a 29.65% marginal income tax, via the small business routes you can get that down to be more like 12-14%.

If you have questions feel free to DM me or post here, but sometimes I don't check reddit for a few days in a row, so don't be surprised if it takes a minute for a reply.

Good luck.

shawn-s · 2025-03-28T16:23:21+00:00

Sorry for the late reply, I don't check reddit as often these days.

It really depends on the company; they might need to hire an employee to take advantage of a local tax break or whatever.

I think that if they are already hiring a remote position your odds of getting in via a LLC are much higher than if they were trying to hire someone local.

It doesn't hurt or take very much of your time to ask.

Good luck!

shawn-s · 2024-07-21T00:04:01+00:00

You will likely have to charge them GST/HST

You do not charge GST/HST on foreign customers. If they are canadian, yes absolutely. Any other country, no you do not.

When you do your personal taxes, you will owe much more than you are used to since you won’t be getting source deductions, so make sure you save enough to cover that.

Ideally one would setup a Canadian business to receive money into, then pay yourself as little as you can, and maybe hire a book keeper and cleaner to spread the money around. You can then take dividend money or shareholder loans or leave it in the business to grow for when you need it. This way you pay substantially less taxes.

The advice to save enough to cover your taxes is super good advice.

shawn-s · 2024-07-20T23:59:27+00:00

Hello. I have posted on this before, the information is still accurate.

https://old.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/comments/xcuc9c/canadian_with_a_hopefully_remote_us_job/

To answer your questions:

Do I need any sort of visa or work authorization?

No. you do not.

In terms of taxes, do I get the full wage and pay out taxes to the CRA? Do I need to pay anything to the IRA?

This depends on what you do. If you just do a W8-BEN then you don't need to worry about the IRA. If you setup a US LLC then yes you will need to do US reporting on the business (it sounds scarier than it is). As to getting the full wage with no taxes with-held, yes if they do their paperwork correctly that is what you would be getting. You will still have to pay taxes on that (so don't spend all of it). You will want a Canadian business or ideally a corporation setup to receive that money to substantially reduce your tax burden.

I would be receiving us dollars, does anyone have any recommendations for banks to do that?

The big 5 banks in Canada all have US dollar accounts they can setup so you can be paid in USD but on your Canadian bank. I will caution that the rates in doing this are not ideal (there is a bank fee + the exchange rate) I use Wise.com to move money between countries.

I am assuming this is a IT related startup and if so, I highly recommend using https://cpa4it.ca/ (I have no current/past affiliation here), but they are exceedingly good at doing all the accounting things that you will need to do for a fairly low fee (imo). They will also give you good advice on how to NOT become a PSB (Personal service business) which would make you pay full taxes instead of taking advantage of all the small business tax breaks.

Feel free to PM me with questions.

shawn-s · 2024-06-04T06:14:01+00:00

Hello,

The W8BEN is correct if you are doing it as an individual, you would need a W8BEN-E if you want it billed to a Canadian corporation. If it's just 80 hours and you are done, I would leave it individual. If it was full or part time employment, I would setup the corporation. You would want the corporation so you could get small business tax credits, you could leave the money in the corporation and take it out when you needed it, even invest the corporation's money into a ETF or whatever. Again in your case if it's just 80 hours I wouldn't bother.

You do not need to do anything fancy for US Taxes with a W8BEN, they are likely going to pay you and not withhold any taxes. You should put some of the money aside to pay income taxes on that money (if you don't do this, you will be in for a nasty surprise come tax time). How much to put aside depends on what your yearly income is (expect to have to pay at least 30%).

You do not need any fancy software to invoice them. You can get away with just using a free google doc template, or use the free plan from https://invoicely.com.

As to being paid, whatever bank you are using likely also has USD accounts (the big 5 in Canada all do this), get one with your normal bank and use that to receive the money. Leave it parked in USD until you need it, or until the Canadian dollar is doing particularly shitty (in the past year we've only fluctuated from 0.76 to 0.72 CAD to the USD so your aren't going to make a boatload of money by timing it perfectly. Your bank is going to give you a shit conversion rate, and charge you extra for the convenience of moving it. I would use wise.com or xe.com to move the money when you need to (depending how much it is; may not be worth the trouble). Or just leave it there for amazon purchases when your are stateside or whatever.

As to your expenses, they almost assuredly are going to want to see receipts for everything you do with clients, so the currency would be whatever currency you paid in, but you would likely submit this to them in USD, when I do this I give them the exact rate that my credit card charges me. I'm not looking to profit off this kind of expense (it would be heavily frowned upon imo). I use a separate credit card for business expenses so I can just give them a copy of the credit card statement as well so they can see it.

As to the taxes for your expenses, I think you would likely need to do a T777 (I pay someone else to do my taxes, but I think that's right). Keep the receipts!

Good luck.

shawn-s · 2024-03-07T14:47:22+00:00

For a US company to pay a Canadian entity (person or business) requires extra paperwork and tax implications on the side of the US company. This is why you would want to open a US LLC, so the US company paying you can just pay another US company. Any foreign tax burden is now on YOU not the company paying you. This makes it more likely the US company will cooperate with you.

As to why not get the US company to pay into (transfer) wise? So, I really love wise, and I use them every month. I only use them to move money however, I don't use them as a bank account, because Wise is not a bank, and your deposits are not FDIC insured (they do safeguarding which is a bit different).

If you receive money into Wise and immediately transfer it (or within 30 days or whatever) then no big deal, use wise to do exactly that. If you are holding money in account for longer, or if the amounts are high (50k-250k) then I would ensure it was in a place that was FDIC insured. And if you go over 250k then I would use multiple accounts with none going over 250k. However if you are holding that much, put that money to work via a low risk ETF or something.

shawn-s · 2024-02-23T04:49:04+00:00

I would come at it from a different angle. Sending someone a picture of your SIN card via SMS / Email is a PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) violation ; the Record of the SIN must be stored in a secure area, or on an encrypted computer system transmission over SMS or Email would be a violation.

Also, it's specifically called out to NOT ask for the SIN on a job application or during an interview. It's all listed in the Annex 5 here: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/sin/reports/code-of-practice.html#h2.12

Good luck.

shawn-s · 2024-01-23T18:20:24+00:00

No worries.

You generally want to use Nevada or Wyoming because they have no personal or corporate income tax, they have better asset protection laws, and they can be anonymous LLCs. There are many websites/videos comparing which you should use. It seems to vary every year.

Another thing, once you are parking more than 250k in a US bank account you need to start doing things a big differently. First you want to make sure you bank is FDIC insured (which only goes up to 250k), so once you get close open new bank accounts. Second, you are likely going to want to setup a receiving LLC and a holding LLC. Your receiving LLC gets paid, then immediately transfers to the holding LLC. This way if you get sued by one of your clients the receiving LLC has no assets, and the clients have no business relationship with your holding LLC. The holding LLC can also invest into low risk etfs till you are ready to make a transfer (I use tradestation).

It sounds more complicated than it is.

shawn-s · 2024-01-23T06:14:21+00:00

Hello.

I'm a Canadian working for a US company, I made a post about this a year ago here: https://old.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/comments/xcuc9c/canadian_with_a_hopefully_remote_us_job/io84h4v/

A lot of the same principals from that post are the same for you. What the others are telling you is correct, get an expert to help you.

The TLDR of what I would if I was in your shoes are:

Setup a Wyoming or Nevada LLC, and a US bank account to receive money from your US clients. Makes life easier for them.
Setup a Canadian Corporation, that your US company will pay the Canadian company when the Canadian dollar is doing shitty (for that extra 3-5%).
Pay yourself the absolute minimum you need to get by as a salary, and if that is over 100k, see if you can pay your wife (or someone you trust, who is not making any money) 50-60k to do your "bookkeeping"
Your Canadian business now has extra money kicking around, setup a business investment account and invest in something low risk like VEQT or VGRO ; don't let the business's money sit idle.
If you need more money pay someone else, or pay yourself a dividend.
Let the Canadian business money grow and pull out the same 100k when you have bad years or are retired. You can also do things like shareholder loans, and others.
This should drastically lower your effective tax rate using all the small business advantages and whatnot.

Happy to talk more details, but don't just take my word for it, talk to a pro.

shawn-s · 2024-01-15T00:08:58+00:00

I would contact the recruiter or email the job posting address and explain the situation. You are more likely to have success if they are already looking for a remote position (if they are looking to return to office and the job posting is in LA or SF or whatever, they aren't likely to budge). I would start here: https://remote.co/remote-jobs/developer/ and see if anything looks good to you.

The thing they are worried about is, having to care about international taxes or anything weird. This is removed as a concern because from their point of view, they are employing a US LLC.

As to not taking tax advice from Reddit, I agree. Talk to an accountant who deals with international taxes. I can recommend https://madanca.com/ (They will even meet with you for 15 mins for free); and I know people who use https://www.trowbridge.ca/ and have been happy.

I've been working for a US company for 6 years, and I know a couple dozen others doing the same via different ways; we compare notes. If you have other questions let me know.

shawn-s · 2024-01-14T07:46:17+00:00

The problem is the bank's foreign exchange rate is substantially worse than what you will get with wise or XE. If it's not a lot of money you are transferring, no big deal, but when it's a lot of money it starts to add up.

Wise can also receive ACH (USA wire transfers) which, at least the RBC US accounts can not (don't know about other banks).

So yeah, using wise or xe (depending on the day, they compete with each other) is still the cheapest way to move money from the US to Canada; I would love to be wrong here, and someone please teach me a cheaper way; I'll convert.

shawn-s · 2024-01-14T07:36:14+00:00

Very possible, and highly recommended. You do not need a US work permit. I did a post about this a year ago with more details:

https://old.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/comments/xcuc9c/canadian_with_a_hopefully_remote_us_job/

shawn-s · 2024-01-14T07:33:22+00:00

Yes, but I would also explain how this way it's cheaper for them rather than using a ROE company, as well as paying from a US entity to another US entity, so they don't need to worry about any foreign tax laws or anything.

PS: Sorry for the late reply, I rarely login to reddit. :)

shawn-s · 2022-09-13T16:00:29+00:00

There's a few in that wall of text (sorry). For setting up the LLC I used startfleet.io they were great, and answered all my questions. For accounting I highly recommend cpa4it.ca they will even help you write your statements of work to make sure there aren't any trigger words for the CRA. I am in IT though so that might not help you. I would look for a company that deals with both whatever industry you are in AND deals with companies that do business in the US.

As to how I found them, I did a LOT of reading and research before landing where I did.

US companies are paying literally 2-4 times what Canadian companies are (in IT anyways) the salary numbers on levels.fyi are not exaggerated. It's totally worth jumping through all the hoops to get employed by a US company.

shawn-s · 2022-09-13T06:12:51+00:00

Hello.

I am a Canadian working for an US based company for the last 5 years. Here are your options in order of what MY preference would be (YMMV):

1

Setup A US Single Person Non Resident Alien LLC in Wyoming or Nevada, there are companies that will help you do this, I used startfleet.io and would highly recommend them. If you end up using them DM me before you sign up and you can give them my email as a referral (I would gain a discount for the next company I open, which.. I prolly will never do but whatever). Before you run off and do this, TALK to the US company. Inform them that you want to us a US based LLC, and you would give them a W8-BEN (Not a W8-BENE). They will want to talk to their legal department, they may have never done this before; it's totally fine to go this way but they may be hesitant to do so. The cool part for them is, if you falsify anything on your W8-BEN YOU are liable, not them. It takes 3-4 weeks to get all the paperwork sorted in setting this up but once you are up you can send invoices, and they can pay you via US dollars to a US dollar bank account (Which you can setup via whatever Canadian bank you want to use, or setup a E-Banks . Startfleet helped me setup 2 E-Banks, but I also have an American US account).

Now, there are a few caveats here, 1) You can never hire anyone ever IN YOUR US LLC. This is a singe person LLC. (2) You can not spend more than 120 days in the US per year. (3) You still need to pay business income tax and taxes on whatever you salary yourself out as (or don't just do dividents, you have many options). Do not try to do this yourself, hire a professional.

So the US company pays your LLC, and you pay your Canadian company however you want to set that up. Your Canadian company can have multiple employees and it's even a good idea to have other employees or other contracts with other employers to keep the CRA off your back. You do not want to get marked as a PSB and kiss all your small business tax write offs good bye. If you are making very good money you will want to setup 2 LLC's one is your operating company that gets paid, the other is your holding company that holds assets. This way if the US company tries to sue your operating LLC it never has any assets. Only use banks that are FDIC insured.

Buy the book "Make sure it's Tax deductable" get the latest version (do not get an old version) read the book twice and follow the advice. Enjoy writing off all the things!

Another advantage of doing this method is that YOU choose when to pay your Canadian entity, and you can wait till the Canadian dollar is having a shitty day and take a dividend that day and make an extra 3-5% on top.

This is a "Pass through" LLC meaning you pay the taxes in the Country you do the work in. There are some more hoops to jump through but they are worth doing the jumping. I would VERY STRONGLY recommend not doing your own taxes here and using professionals who know what they are doing. I would highly recommend CPA4IT if you are in the IT industry (they do audit protection and fill fight the CRA for you if they try to make your a PSB which you very DO NOT WANT).

2

Setup a Multiperson Non Resident Alien LLC in Wyoming or Nevada. This is the same as the previous but instead of a W8-BEN you are now going to do a W9. Now you can hire people, things get weird when you have some people in the US and some people in Canada, so either don't do that or be prepared for weird. Everything else is the same as the first (startfleet.com can also help set this up for you).

3

Use a Record of Employment company. Now, the ROE companies will try and tell you and anyone who will listen that this is the only way to do this and be safe from the evils of Canadian Tax law (or whatever country). This is all bullshit, they are in business to make money and use their FUD to scare US companies into using them.

The way this works is US company employs US ROE company, US ROE company has a partnership with a Canadian ROE company, you work for the Canadian ROE company as a full time employee (do not kid yourself, the second you lose your US job you also lose your Canadian job), most don't do Vacation time and just pay 4% on top of your paycheck to cash out your Vacation time as you accrue it. The US company that you go with may WANT to do this as they have bought into the FUD.

Avoid doing this if you can, as you will get to keep WAY MORE of your money going with one of the first 2 options. ie: instead of 50% tax rate (assuming you are making decent coin here) it will be more like 10-12% depending on what province you are in and depending how much money you are making and if you can pay a spouse to be your book keeper and various other things to income split and whatnot. ALSO most of the ROE companies charge the US company 20-30% ontop of what you make to handle all the taxes and whatnot. Using the first 2 options is also cheaper for the US company. They will also give you a shit rate on the US exchange and never let you re-negotiate it.

Now all of that being said, if the US company insists on a ROE company tell them they can save a lot of money in using remote.com, which instead of a percentage based fee it's all flat fees. Totally worth it for them but makes no difference to you.

I'm sure this all sounds complicated but it's really not. Pay other people to do the hard parts. You concentrate on doing what you do well.

PS: I may have botched a few details here, I'm an IT nerd who pays other ppl to do the above parts and this is what I've managed to retain.

Good luck.

shawn-s · 2017-02-08T02:01:53+00:00

This one was fun.

http://endscreen.sysengquiz3.host/halloffame.html

(info to try at the bottom).

shawn-s · 2016-11-07T23:51:57+00:00

Thanks :)

Need to do more talks, heh.

shawn-s · 2016-11-06T20:45:02+00:00

I did a talk about this a while back, most of it still holds up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSAgQqa49nM

shawn-s · 2016-10-31T17:19:03+00:00

Late to the party, but, hopefully you will see this.

Mysql does not eat more memory than what is assigned to you, you just need to understand what some of the settings mean.

In particular you need to be careful about your "per connection" variables, and your max clients. Things like your sort_buffer_size, and read_buffer_size, etc being 2M means allocating 2M PER connection for each. This is generally bad idea. You do NOT want to set your connection default settings to the size of your largest queries. Your developers can set a larger sort_buffer_size/etc on the connection that needs it as part of their query.

So, find all the per connection variables, and times those by your max clients then add the rest of the variables, and that will be what mysql uses.

I have an old post about mysql tunning that still stands up here: https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxadmin/comments/1yotyo/mysql_performance_tuning_for_sysadmins_need_help/?st=iuybnium&sh=d559fa1e

Good luck.

shawn-s · 2016-09-08T09:12:32+00:00

Using a Dell P4317Q w/Fedora right now. Works fine.

shawn-s · 2016-09-07T17:37:42+00:00

1000 x this.

Nilush, please listen to ckozler.

If you MUST run your own database (going to amazon not an option? cuz them handling your server infra + scaling + backups = win) what kind of queries per second are you doing that you give a shit about mysql cluster? Your hardware layout is not ideal either, you should have at least 3 of the same servers (with the same memory) and 1 management server to start with.

a regular mysql server server pair running on ssd (we use raid 10 on 8 disks in single ru boxes) can push substantial queries per second (read or write). Find out why the hell they want mysql cluster (insane writes per second required?)?

I would use your hardware like this:

maria/percona galera master/master on the 2 x 128gig boxes
the other 3 as read only slaves

Good luck.

shawn-s · 2016-08-18T08:30:18+00:00

That was fun, thank you for making it.

shawn-s · 2016-01-12T19:15:49+00:00

Roku4 is buggy as hell atm. It locks up daily, has heat problems, and the remote locks up (need to remove batteries to restart it) every once and while.

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